Have you heard that statement that "War is politics by other means?" Well, that means that politics is also war by other means. Expecting the KGB, or the GOP, or anyone else in power to behave by some gentleman's agreement is just not going to happen.

The presidency will be taken by the candidate with the right combination of charisma, resources, stump speech, allies, surrogates, networks, promises, and strategies, both overt and covert. This is the way it always has been, and I don't foresee it changing any time soon.

Clinton focused a lot on the resources, surrogates (though I found many of them such as Wasserman-Shulz etc. to be off-putting), and allies (though too often only the heads of organizations like unions and Planned Parenthood, while actual members enthusiasm waned). That was not enough. Her charisma was lacking, her stump speeches were more a panoply of policies than an articulation of overall vision, her networks did not reach effectively into the South or Midwest (etc.), her promises failed to GOTV, and her strategies were flawed. Trump just did better, KGB as a covert, shady, nefarious ally/network very much included.

Had Clinton done better with allies, networks, charisma, speeches, and more, the race would not even have been close. I pretty much agree with all you've said about the race being stolen in selected locations, the KGB playing media games, and that much of the GOP are criminals. Plus, the electoral college is bullshit. But a candidate's mission is to succeed in the real world: potholes, criminals, and all. That was true for the Primary (whether one believes the DNC was corrupt/unfair/biased against Bernie or not), and it was true in the General Election. Hillary used her elbows plenty during the Primary, and then bizarrely chose to run the must conventional of GE campaigns during the most unconventional of moments. Similar, biased/unfair factors will be in-play during 2018, 2020, and beyond. We can't be satisifed with close to 50%: it will be stolen by the powerful whenever the sides are that close. We need a groundswell of populism behind us, or we need to hang it up and let another Party take the reins.

Progressives and Democrats have got to play political strategy like a general would plan and impement war strategy. And the goal of a war is to win. That means winning against thieves, winning against slick propagandists, and winning against criminals. I expect and plan for nothing less, and so should you.

Standing Rock is an unpredicted history lesson for all of us. More than any moment I recall since Wounded Knee, the Vietnam War, or the time of Martin Luther King, this moment stands as a crossroads in the battle for social justice. It is also an economic issue, in a time of economic system transformation, and profoundly a question of the future of this land. The world is watching.

As the US Army Corps of Engineers issues a December 5 eviction notice for thousands of people gathered on the banks of the Missouri River, we face our truth. Those people at the Oceti Sakowin and Red Warrior Camps, along with the 550 people who have been arrested so far, are really the only thing standing between a river and a corporation that wants to pollute it. That we know, because absent any legal protections, and with a regulatory system hijacked by oil interests and a federal government in crisis, the people and the river remain the only clear and sentient beings.

In short, this is a moment of extreme corporate rights and extreme racism confronted by courage, prayers, and resolve. This moment has been coming. The violence and the economics of a failing industry will indeed unravel, and this is the beginning.

(snip)

To serve the convenience of a deadline for Energy Transfer Partners’s corporate profits, the police have fired teargas canisters, water hoses, concussion grenades, rubber bullets, tasers, and bean bag rounds at unarmed people trying to protect their water supply. Most of them are Native, and the North Dakota media has continued to portray the water protectors as outlaws.

When 21 year old New York resident Sophia Wilansky’s arm was blown off by a concussion grenade, Morton County Sheriff Kirchenmeir suggested that the water protectors caused it. A statement of her father, attorney Wayne Wilansky, differs: “At around 4:30am after the police hit the bridge with water cannons and rubber bullets and pepper spray, they lobbed a number of concussion grenades which are not supposed to be thrown at people directly, at protesters or protectors as they want to be called. A grenade exploded right as it hit Sophia in the left forearm taking most of the undersurface of her left arm with it. Both her radial and ulnar artery were completely destroyed. Her radius was shattered and a large piece of it is missing. Her medial nerve is missing a large section as well. All of the muscle and soft tissue between her elbow and wrist were blown away. The police did not do this by accident - it was an intentional act of throwing it directly at her. Additionally police were shooting people in the face and groin, intending to do the most possible damage…”

As of now, the Morton County Sheriff's office has stated its intent to blockade all supplies to the Oceti Sakowin camp. With all that's going on, please don't lose track of this important cause and vital locus of resistance.

The fact that there are ten examples presented of people planning to knock buildings down and failing so spectacularly indicates ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the plausibility of two amateur-piloted jet planes taking-down some of the more advanced and secured skyscrapers in the United States. It only makes sense that these buildings struck by asymmetric impacts and unpredictable but relatively moderate heating should collapse EXACTLY into their own footprints.

The only factor that the DEA needs to consider is that there is no provision in the US Constitution giving the Federal Government the power to ban the possession, cultivation, or use of plants. Anything else is obfuscation and injustice.

He was on a roll of unifying and uplifting themes, but then had to attack "the proliferation of military-style weapons on our streets" and "the anti-democratic stronghold of the NRA."

Even as a non-member of the NRA, I bristle at the thought of an interest group being branded as "anti-democratic" simply because it is effective at advocating for its interest in protecting a Constitutional right. Leaders of the NRA may be cynical, racist, manipulative, hypocritical, contemptuous of many other essential Constitutional liberties, and worse; that still does not erase the fact that a group advocating for a strong Second Amendment policy is a part of the democratic process.

And attacking "the proliferation of military-style weapons on our streets" is just code cords for "we want to ban lots of guns."

It's a good thing that Republicans suck entirely this year. Democrats can probably get away with sucking on the Second Amendment without alienating too many voters. Still, my votes for Democrats will have to be accompanied by donations to pro-2A organizations: almost certainly not the NRA, but maybe some of the others. Suggestions of who is good on the RKBA without also being racist haters are welcome.